Ch 325: The Demonic Parade

"Hum? That's new." said Shizuka as she stared at another group of a dozen men and women wearing Gantz bodysuits. They stared at them, standing a hundred meters away. Two of them were even sitting on the seat of strange motorcycles with only one giant wheel.

"Looks like another big mission." shrugged Reika as the other members of her team were teleported one by one.

Tonight was Reika's fourth Hunting mission, and just like Mary McLane and Anzu Yamazaki, she had gone through Sakura's and Rin's very particular brand of training.

Just like Shizuka, Reika had been very reluctant at first, but had now completely accepted her place as a member of Noah's slave harem.

No, Reika didn't just accept her new role. She reveled in it. Even before Sakura first closed a slave collar around her neck, Reika had been the type of woman to devote herself fully to a romantic partner, to the point of prioritizing their needs before her own.

The things Sakura made her experience only built on what was already there, reinforcing it, and draping it in leather and latex and chains.

Kaze was the last one to be teleported. Their little group was now complete. Shizuka, Reika, Anzu, Mary, Eru, Kei, Sakura, Rin, Ayase, Tsugumi, and the three men, Kaze, Hiroto, and Yoshizaku.

And the Panda, that had somehow survived until now.

The two young men from a Host Club had been killed during the last mission. They had participated in the Magecraft lesson Sakura and Rin gave everyone, and just barely learned Body Strengthening. Gaining supernatural abilities made them overconfident, and they both decided to separate from the group to kill some aliens themselves and get some points.

Shizuka suspected their real motive had been to paint themselves as strong and reliable, to try to seduce the girls of the group.

Unfortunately for them, one of the aliens was the boss, one who specialized in lightning-fast movements, and the two of them were already dead when Shizuka and the others reached them.

"Hey, I think I recognize this street!" exclaimed Anzu. "If I'm not wrong, we're in Osaka right now, not Tokyo!"

"You're familiar with this place?" asked Rin, searching for signposts. They could hear distant drums. It sounded like some festive event was ongoing.

"Yes. I spent the first fifteen years of my life in Osaka." smiled Anzu. "I lived about one kilometer from there. That takes me back."

"That's where you got your cute accent." smiled Sakura, and Anzu nodded.

"So, we're reinforcing the Osaka team, from the looks of it. Is it because we only lost two people in the last three missions, so we're sent to show teams how it's done?" joked Shizuka.

"We're about to learn more, they're coming." shrugged Rin. "Four of them have strange weapons as well. Likely those advanced ones you can buy for 100 points."

Shizuka had seen them. It was hard to, with how bulky they were. They were vaguely shaped like the letter U, with the grip and trigger being sandwiched between the two fort-centimeter-long part, and several black cables were exposed, as is the designer had not cared about protecting the weapon's functionality from potential damage.

"Yo!" called out the closest one, a man in his twenties, with black eyes and semi-long brown hair stopping just past his shoulders. From the way the others had lined up behind him, Shizuka assumed.

"Hello." said Sakura. "Are you the Osaka team?"

"You got that right. That's our turf. My name's Kasuo. You?"

"I'm Sakura. We're the Tokyo team."

"Well, judging from your equipment, you guys don't have as much combat experience as we do. Just don't get in our way, okay? It's fine if you just hang back." said the Osaka leader with a fearless smile.

"Really?" asked Sakura with a raised eyebrow as she looked at the others behind that man. Half of them looked like thugs or school delinquents. But they all seemed to share their leader's opinion. Sakura looked back at her companions, and they shrugged. "If you wish to take the lead, we do not mind. We'll save you when you need it." shrugged Sakura as she turned back toward the Osaka team.

"Eh! I like girls with character." smiled Kasuo.

"Thanks for the interest, but I'm already taken. We all are."

"I don't mind." exclaimed one of the guys of the Osaka group, staring her up and down with lewd eyes. "How about we have some fun on the side, babe? My mates are enough to deal with the monsters. I'm sure that after you get a taste of my dick, you'll break up with your boyfriend."

"Okay. First, my partner is almost a sex god. There's no way you could compare. Second, remember the news about that guy who got a spiked rod up his butt?"

Most of the Osaka team members nodded. It had made national news, and the search for both the culprit and the one who had created such an ominous 'tool' had been mentioned for days.

"I'm the one who did it. So, back off." smiled Sakura.

"That's some crazy shit!" blurted out another man, and most of them took a step back by reflex, intimidated by Sakura's cold smile and realizing that she might be a psycho.

"Anyway, the mission has started. So, are you guys taking the lead, or are we doing it?" asked Rin.

"We'll do it." nodded Kasuo.

He nodded to the members of his group, and they walked toward the center of the hunting area. Two of the men climbed back into their strange motorcycles, but remained behind, waiting.

"This mission is going to be a difficult one." frowned Sakura as they followed the Osaka group.

"Because Gantz sent two teams?" asked Rin.

"There is that, but also that our target is called 'Nurarihyon', and not 'something alien'. This suggest the target is remarkable enough to be known by its own unique name."

"Now that you mention it, you're right." frowned Eru.

I'm starting to pick up some blips on the radar." warned Tsugumi, and those who had taken computers quickly checked theirs. More blips appeared as they looked, forming a long line.

The aliens were moving along a wide street, and would soon come into view, about 150 meters away.

Sakura looked up to her right and to her left, observing the buildings for a second.

"Are you guys okay with following my directives?"

All the members of her team nodded. Sakura was the informal leader, and her plans had worked well enough during the last few missions.

"Very well. Kaze-san, Kei, Mary, you're on rear guard duty. Your job will be to be sure nothing sneaks up on us. The computers aren't reliable."

"Understood." nodded Kaze.

"Anzu and Reika, I want you on the rooftops of those buildings on our right. Ayase and Tsugumi, the buildings on our left. Try not to be seen. Your role is sniping valuable targets when they are distracted, not scouting the enemy."

"Okay." nodded Tsugumi.

Sakura had paired the girls depending on the weapons they used. Tsugumi and Anzu used G-Rifles, while Reika and Tsugumi were equipped with a G-Gun and a G-Sword.

"The rest of us will follow and assist the Osaka team if they get into trouble. But we do not show any supernatural ability where they might see."

The girls nodded, and half of the group took their assigned positions. Anzu, Reika, Ayase and Tsugumi easily jumped into the nearest rooftops, then jumped from one rooftop to another, getting closer to the street where the aliens were walking. They took cover without trying to get a look at the aliens, waiting for the opportune moment.

Then, the first alien came into view. As the members of the Osaka group had kept walking without paying attention to what the Tokyo team was doing, the distance separating them from the alien was a mere fifty meters.

At a first glance, the alien looked like a woman in a red kimono, with a piece of white cloth forming a kind of ceremonial hat.

But only at first glance. She was over two meters tall, and her slightly opened mouth showed black teeth. Her skin was abnormally pale, and her cloth hat didn't quite hide the absence of eyes on her face.

The alien turned her head left and saw them, and she froze for an instant. Then she picked up the folds of her kimono and ran away.

As some of the members of the Osaka team aimed their rifles while chuckling, Sakura felt uneasy. She instinctively looked up at a tall radio tower in the distance.

And she saw him.

Nurarihyon looked like an old, short man wearing traditional Japanese clothing. He was flanked by two aliens almost three times his size. One was dressed like a Shinto priest, and had the face of a white fox, framed by long black hair.

Sakura estimated the two were about five meter tall.

He was slender and looked almost delicate, but Sakura wasn't going to lower her guard about him.

The second was tall and burly, with red skin, and an elongated nose that reminded Sakura of some Tengu masks. He also had a pair of white feathered wings on his back.

When Sakura met Nurarihyon's gaze, she frowned because she didn't feel any hostility. The target of their hunt was simply staring at them with a cold, detached expression.

…As if the Hunters were not strong enough to register as a threat in his eyes.

"Kasuo!" called out Sakura, and some of the Osaka members looked back at her. "The target is standing near the top of the radio tower, five hundred meters away!"

They turned their heads in the tower's direction, and despite the distance and sparse lighting, eventually spotted the three individuals observing them.

"Thanks for the tip." nodded Kasuo, unaware that Sakura had just volunteered his team to test the boss's capabilities.

"They're spreading out to the side streets." warned Rin, keeping an eye on her radar.

The Osaka team had noticed, too, and they spread out in teams of two or three, none of them looking like they felt any threat to their lives. If anything, they seemed to look forward to fighting the aliens.

"The overconfident fools." muttered Shizuka.

Sakura could only agree. It was fine for them to go in pairs, since they had bodies and reflexes far above those of normal people. But that wasn't the case for the Osaka team.

"We'll separate into smaller groups as well." decided Sakura.

Her phone buzzed, and she glanced at it for an instant. It as a message from Ayase.

"Over 400 aliens of various forms and size, and the theme seems to be Youkai. It's a whole demonic parade in the streets."

"That explains the drums and flutes." muttered Sakura with another glance at Nurarihyon, making sure he and his two bodyguards hadn't moved from their spot before she moved to a side street.

They separated in pairs, Shizuka with Sakura, and the two of them followed a group of two men and one girl from the Osaka team. They had started fighting against five aliens, their bodies shaped like wheels, with part of a torso, a head and an arm holding a rusting saber protruding from one side. Those aliens screamed like tortured souls as they moved forward, attempted to slash the humans facing them as they rolled by.

Sakura might not have been impressed but the Osaka member's characters, but she had to admit that they were skilled. They ducked or side-stepped away from the sabers, and used the longer reach of the G-Swords to retaliate, severely injuring or killing the demonic wheels.

"Sanpei! Duck!" suddenly called out the girl who had remained behind, and one of the men hurriedly crouched as he turned, just barely evading a slash from a wheeled demon he hadn't kept track on. He laughed as he aimed at the departing demon with his G-Gun, pressed the upper trigger three times, then the other one once. Before the alien could turn and try another hit and run, parts of its body exploded, and it collapsed to the side.

"Your friends look… quite happy." said Sakura to the girl, who nodded.

"They're all fucking insane. But they help us girls get some points and we'll soon have enough to get out of here."

"Do they… make you pay, for those points?" asked Shizuka after a short hesitation, and the girl shrugged.

"Most of the time, we can get away with just flirting a bit, and they're satisfied. They're not forcing us, but… It's a fair trade. I slept with two of them."

"I see." nodded Sakura. "…As long as you're consenting to it, this arrangement is none of our business. Since those guys seem to know what they're doing, we'll search our own targets."

Shizuka nodded and followed Sakura to another street. Only to face a ten-meter-tall giant, naked but having nothing between the legs.

The giant smiled hungrily as he bent toward them, extending his hands to grab them.

Sakura and Shizuka both reacted smoothly, dashing forward while extending their G-swords, and slashed open the giant's palms, making it flinch and jerk his hands back. Before he could move any further, Shizuka and Sakura were severing its Achilles heels, making it collapse with a cry.

One second later, Sakura was severing its throat, turning its scream into a useless gurgle.

The girls didn't pay the giant any more attention as they searched for the next target.

They killed a few humanoid aliens that were just barely bigger than a human, wearing only loincloths.

But when they turned a street corner, that saw something revolting. Amidst a street littered with alien corpses, three of the Osaka Hunters were surrounding a female alien. She was bent over, the business end of a G-Gun pressed against her head, while one of the hunters was raping her.

Some distance behind them, another of the Osaka Hunters, one of the two motorcycle drivers, had removed the upped part of his suit. He was busy injecting himself with what seemed to be heroin.

Sakura hesitated for an instant, as cold calculation fought her fury in her mind. With the Alien Invasion being imminent, killing those three, no matter how disgusting they were, might result in more innocents being killed, as humanity would have less competent people to fight for it.

Sakura had gathered many allies, between her fellow Hunters and the pilots they received as quest rewards, but they couldn't be everywhere, and she knew the civilian casualties would be heavy.

Still, she was about to decide that they just needed to die, consequences be damned, when Shizuka took the decision for her.

She sprinted toward the rapist and executed a splendid drop kick, sending him flying away, likely with a broken rib or three despite the suit's protection.

"What the fuck?" exclaimed the man who had pressed a gun against the alien's head.

He suddenly froze as the blade of Shizuka's sword pressed against his throat.

"Freeze!" ordered Sakura, her own G-Gun aimed at them as she quickly pressed the first trigger. The targets would be memorized for 30 seconds before the gun reset itself. "I have locked all three of your heads. One press of the trigger, and you're all dead."

"What kind of fucking animal are you?" growled Shizuka, her eyes drilling holes into the three men in turn. "If you can't keep it in your pants, should I cut it off?"

"Why do you care? They're aliens!" protested the man who had helped keep the alien woman in position. He had loosened his grip on the alien woman as he stared at Sakura and Shizuka, and the alien used the opportunity to bolt. Neither Shizuka nor Sakura were in the mood to stop or kill her.

"You brain-dead moron! First, rape is just wrong, I doesn't matter if she's human, alien, or whatever! Second, you think the suit you wear and those weapons are human tech? There are aliens watching us, you fucking ape! What if they look at your actions and judge that humans are too barbaric and perverted, and that we need to be wiped out?"

"Fuck you and your high hors… Awwww!!!"

Shizuka didn't let him and his sentence and kicked between his legs, hard.

Sakura looked at the three in turns, and didn't see a shred of remorse on their faces. She sighed, walked to Shizuka, and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Come with me for an instant, we need to talk." said Sakura. As she talked, she pressed the lower trigger, keeping the gun aimed at the ground, at an angle that would prevent the Osaka hunters from seeing her finger move.

"What? But…" Shizuka had no choice but to follow, as Sakura simply dragged her away.

Which was why she didn't get any blood splatter on her suit when the heads of the two men near her, and the rapist a few meters away, exploded simultaneously.

"Oh... Thanks."

The one on the motorcycle was staring, his eyes widening in alarm, but Sakura was already aiming her gun at him, pressing both triggers in quick succession.

He tried to aim his own gun at them when his head exploded as well.

Sakura unceremoniously put the corpses into her spatial ring, and did the same with the motorcycle.

"We weren't there, and we haven't seen anything." said Sakura, and Shizuka nodded.

"Yeah, that's for the best."

They were walking down another street, checking on their radar, noticing that the number of blips was steadily decreasing. The girls on the rooftops were taking shots at any target in sight.

Then, they heard a huge roar coming from the nearby river, just one block away.

"Sound like a huge cow." said Shizuka.

"Let's check it out." nodded Sakura.

What they found was a giant monster, easily fifteen meters tall. It looked like someone had grafted the upper body of a minotaur on top of a tarantula. It used its hands to grapple something invisible. And as they watched, the invisible enemy dropped its camouflage. It was a large mecha, about twenty meters in height. The black mecha's design looked very similar to the weapons Gantz had provided them, making its origin obvious.

"We can buy mechas with our points?" wondered Shizuka.

"Seems so. But the mecha doesn't seem to have weapons." frowned Sakura.

After about 15 seconds of struggle, the mecha managed to tear the bull's head off the alien's body, and it collapsed, lifeless. The mecha turned toward them for a few seconds, then reengaged its stealth.

"Let's move." suggested Sakura. "There are still a bunch of aliens to deal with, and the last ones will probably be the most dangerous ones."

She was right, as when they walked into another street, they saw the remains of three members of the Osaka team, cut into pieces. Not far from them were walking two aliens, wearing ancient Japanese clothing. One was male, and would have passed for a man, if not for him being about 2,5 meter tall and the demon mask on his face not being an actual mask.

The other, slightly smaller, had a woman's face, but with abnormally pale skin, and a prominent forehead with a receding hairline.

Both had a sheathed katana on their waist.

"Ah!" snorted the male alien at the sight of the G-Swords Sakura and Shizuka held.

"Simpletons!" chuckled the female one. "Simpletons. Simpletons."

Without a word, Sakura and Shizuka smoothly aimed their guns at their faces and locked them.

The two aliens dashed forward at a speed that was surprising even for their long legs, and almost managed to reach the girls before their heads exploded.

Sakura created light shields to protect herself and Shizuka from the blood splatter.

"Thanks again. I really should develop the reflexes to do something like this." sighed Shizuka.

"It comes with combat experience." smiled Sakura. "Let's keep going."

Sakura's phone vibrated, and she saw on the screen another message from Ayase.

"Need you by the river. Boss fight about to begin."

"Things are getting serious. We run to the river." said Sakura to Shizuka, who nodded.

The two girls ran at the speed of a horse, reaching the river in seconds. They slowed down as they watched the scene unfolding.

The reds-skinned tengu demon and the fox-faced one were both facing a barrage of hits from the bulky U-shaped weapons held by five of the Osaka members. From the way the aliens seemed to be pressed by an invisible force and the deep circular indentations on the ground in several places, Sakura deduced that the weapon generated some kind of intense gravity force, intense enough to crush weak enemies into bloody paste.

But the two aliens were somewhat resisting it, to the Osaka members' dismay.

The aliens weren't turning into paste, but they were at least pinned down, and blood was seeping from their mouths.

As they came closer, a half-dozen spots on the tengu alien's left flank exploded, making it scream between he gritted teeth, and he lost his balance, being crushed face first into the shattered road. He was still alive and managed to grab the leg of a careless member of the Osaka team.

As the furious alien smashed the unfortunate man head-first into the ground, more explosions on his flank and shoulder occurred, and it collapsed again.

More attacks from the gravity guns shattered his skull this time, and the giant died.

The fox-faced giant, targeted by only one gravity gun, was lashing out, able to move enough that the attacks missed often, and slashing at the hunters with clawed hands.

One of the hunters failed to dodge completely and stumbled, and the alien pounced on him, snapping a huge mouth full of fangs around the man's waist, lifting hm.

The man screamed, but also grabbed his G-sword from his waist, pointed it at the alien's left eye, and extended the blade.

In a huge splatter of blood, blade emerged from the nape of the fox alien, and he stopped moving for a second before collapsing. Another of the Osaka Hunters moved in and decapitated the alien to confirm the kill.

The Hunter who had almost been torn in half struggled to open the jaws and extricate himself, and Sakura saw that the caps of his suit were leaking a gray fluid. The suit had saved him from the alien's fangs, but was now useless.

Nurarihyon walked out from behind a street corner, and walked toward the corpses of the two giants, not paying any attention to the Hunter.

"What? What? What is this?" asked Nurarihyon, sounding like he couldn't quite believe his bodyguards were dead.

Two of the Osaka Hunters used the opportunity to slash at Nurarihyon with their G-swords, and the black blades cut through without apparent difficulty, severing his left arm and both legs just below the knees.

However, Nurarihyon regrew the cut parts almost instantly, so fast that he didn't fell and only stumbled. Not only that, but the cut limbs changed form like they were made of clay, and in less than two seconds, four Nurarihyon, all with a different face, were staring at the giant corpses, still not paying attention to the Hunters.

Three of the Nurarihyon then stepped into the original one, their flesh merging in a disgusting spectacle.

The two hunters slashed at him again, and this time, Nurarihyon ducked under the blow, or stepped aside, or jumped, again and again evading the strikes targeting him while still not looking at the Hunters.

"This boss is bad news." muttered Shizuka, standing near Sakura et in a ready posture.

"Yes."

One of the hunters, furious at the alien was disrespecting them by not even looking at them, dropped his sword and grabbed the alien in a bear hug, hoping his team mate would decapitate Nurarihyon.

Before he could, however, Nurarihyon turned his head 180° to stare at the man holding him, and his body changed, growing. Turning into a mass of white skin, female breasts, and women's limbs.

Before the man could drop Nurarihyon, he was the one embraced by a still growing mass of female bodies, joined to each other like an image created by a badly configured generative AI.

The mass grew and grew, until it formed a female giant, its body made up of hundreds of conjoined, identical women. Its fingers were women's legs. The giant's lips were made of two legs, slightly parted. Its nose, the back of a woman, upside down, her head disappearing inside. Its hair were made of more women dangling, their wrists disappearing inside the scalp.

The giant spat on the ground. It was the severed head of the Osaka member who had been swallowed.

Several parts of the giant exploded as Ayase, Tsugumi and the others go out of their shock and opened fire, but Nurarihyon seemed to repair the damage as soon as it occurred.

"We'll go all-out, Shizuka." said Sakura. "Take one of those gravity weapons."

"Okay!"

Sakura sprinted towards the giant, making a side-step at the lest instant to avoid being grabbed, and slashed the fingers away. Nurarihyon stepped on the severed "fingers" as if to crush them, but was only reabsorbing them. New legs had already grown to replace the lost 'fingers'.

Sakura kept slashing, evading the giant's attacks, including the limbs and torso suddenly erupting from the giant's ankles to try to grab her. She was acting as a decoy while Shizuka stood nearby, charging the U-shaped weapon.

After ten seconds, the charge reached its maximum capacity, and fire.

Most of Nurarihyon's body was instantly crushed into a five-meter wide, circular indentation on the road, turning onto a pool of blood. The severed part of the arm that the giant had extended toward Sakura fell to the side, unmoving.

"He's not going to die from this, right?" frowned Shizuka.

She might not have Sakura's combat experience, but she had seen enough horror movies to be watch warily the pool of blood and the 'arm'.

"I don't think we're going to be that lucky."

As if to confirm their suspicions, the blood rippled toward its center, and a shape began to rise.

At first, it was the back of something large, covered with dark gray scales, and with sharp spikes along the spine. The shape kept rising, straightening, while the giant arm dissolved into blood and joined the pool.

When the blood was fully absorbed by Nurarihyon, had was a six-meter-tall beast with two legs, a long tail lined with spikes, a powerful torso, and three limbs attached to each of his shoulders, a clawed hand and two tentacles.

Nurarihyon's head looked like the white skull of a deer or horse, but with sharp fangs, and antlers featuring many sharp ends.

"Huhu"

"Huuuhuuhuu."

"Huhu Huhu…"

The alien made strange noises as he faced the Hunters.

He glared at one of the Osaka Hunters, and suddenly, one arm and two legs of the man exploded. Sakura had barely felt some kind of invisible wave go from Nurarihyon's eyes to the hunter's limbs.

She wasn't certain she would be able to react in time, if this attack was directed at her, so she truly went all-out. Her shadow started to rise, covering her body like an armor.

Nurarihyon noticed and turned its head toward her, but two beams impacted its back, making it stumble.

The giant mecha lost its stealth as two more heat beams shot from its hands, hitting Nurarihyon again. It was armed after all.

Furious, Nurarihyon turned toward the mecha, and many parts of the machine started exploding all over its frame.

The mecha fell backward and stopped moving. A silhouette rose from it. Some kind of powered armor, completely covering the wearer.

Just like the G-suits, the armor seemed mostly made of mate black rubber, with many caps being visible. But it had a solid helmet featuring many cameras and its oversized arms touched the ground. Many cables protruded from the back of the armor and its helmet, dragging in the floor behind the armor, and long black blades came out from the suit's shoulders like swords held in a reverse grip stance, their tips stopping 50 centimeters above the armor's helmet.

The armored Hunter walked toward Nurarihyon until only four meters separated them.

"So convinced of your immortality, you are full of openings. Bring it on, anytime, anywhere!" mocked the Hunter, a male, from his voice.

Nurarihyon was visibly displeased by those words, and he opened his skeletal mouth, an orange glow growing from it.

The hunter flexed his legs, and using both legs and one arm, dashed forward.

He punched one of reverse joints of Nurarihyon's monstrous legs, causing his upper body to bend.

"Despite this look, in grade school, I played Ping Pong!" exclaimed the man as he performed an uppercut, shattering Nurarihyon's lower jaw.

He then spun on himself, lifting an elbow, and the blade protruding from it decapitated Nurarihyon.

"Just so you know, I'm studying Karate… Through an online class, that is."

"You should step back, he's not dead yet." warned Akeno.

The armored helmet made a small nod and extended his hands toward Nurarihyon's body and head. There were gun ports on his palms, similar to the famous Iron Man suit, and small heat beams impacted Nurarihyon's body, doing damage similar to the G-Guns, but without any delay.

Nurarihyon's body seemed to explode into a aberration of mutating flesh, healing the damage and changing form constantly. At some point, Akeno saw the shape of a reptilian frog, with a human mouth between its eyes and a half-dozen walrus tusks. At another, a woman's torso, topped with a horse skull, a thick, veiny penis in place of a tongue.

The thing was ever-changing, and when the armored hunter stopped firing, suddenly stabilized into a naked man with Nurarihyon's face.

"Interesting. Very interesting."

The armored Hunter resumed his attack, trying to punch Nurarihyon or slash him, but the alien evaded every hit.

Then his body changed again, gaining muscle mass, his arms thickening and elongating, and long, sharp bones growing from his elbows.

He had just imitated the shape and weapons of the armored hunter.

Nurarihyon made a fast jab at the armored hunter's head, and it connected. The helmet flew off, revealing the face of the hunter, a man with black eyes and hair, but not doing any damage.

The man and Nurarihyon exchanged quick blows as the armor emitted a lot of white smoke, gradually obscuring the view.

When it dissipated, Sakura could see that Nurarihyon had managed to stab through the armor. However, he also had been stabbed from behind by a G-sword, held by the Hunter.

He had left his armor as a decoy while using the smoke to go behind Nurarihyon.

With a grunt of effort, the hunter moved the blade upward, opening Nurarihyon from the navel to the top of his head.

Nurarihyon fell, and the hunter moved a few steps back, armed only with his sword.

"I'll be taking over, if you don't mind." said Sakura, and the hunter glanced at her. His eyebrows shot up as he saw her covered in jet-black shadows from the neck down, but nodded.

While Nurarihyon changed form yet again, Sakura increased the shadow's coverage to her head as well. Only her eyes, the sole of her feet, and her palms were uncovered.

Nurarihyon stood, and Sakura somehow had the feeling that this was his true form. A 2,5 meters tall humanoid, whose body looked like a man who had been skinned, muscles and tendons and thoracic cage visible. His back, however, sported over three dozen spikes spreading in all directions

His head with a human skull, with ridges and a half-dozen horns swept back, and his upper canines her sharp fangs as long as fingers.

Tied to each elbow was a crescent-shaped bone scythe.

"You bore me. You are predictable." said Nurarihyon, looking down at them.

Sakura's answer was to dash forward, and Nurarihyon slashed with his scythes.

However, Sakura stopped just out of range, and snaked a shadow ribbon around Nurarihyon's legs, brutally bringing them together. She used the ribbon to lift him, and smashed him against the road several times in quick succession before releasing him.

"I'm sure you predicted this, then." mocked Sakura.

Nurarihyon growled at her as he tried to get back on his feet, and was surprised to see that he had no feet anymore.

Sakura didn't like using her control over her shadows in the way Medusa had once described Angry Mainyu acted, devouring what it touched.

"Your ability to change forms and heal yourself is impressive. But doing so has to use energy. I wonder, will you run out of energy first, or will my shadows devour you before that happens?"

Nurarihyon had regrown his feet, and Sakura made a gesture with her left hand. It was the signal for Ayase, Rin, Tsugumi, Anzu, Reika, Kei and the others to open fire with their G-rifles, G-guns, and with the gravity guns they had quietly collected.

"You!" exclaimed Nurarihyon as his body took damage, and this time, he couldn't quite regenerate fast enough.

His eyes glowed red, and Sakura instinctively created multiple layers of Light Shields, soon imitated by the others who were able to. Red beams of lights shot out of Nurarihyon's eyes, and Sakura's shields were depleting fast. She had to renew them several times. She considered using Shunpo to evade instead, but decided to endure it, as she didn't want to give the alien the idea of targeting someone else.

Still, it was only a few seconds before Nurarihyon's skull finally exploded under the intense barrage, and Sakura extended her shadow, devouring as much of the bloody paste as she could.

The skull reformed and rose from the bloody goo, but before it could open fire, was once again shattered.

Sakura finished absorbing everything, aside from a few blood splatters, and had to deactivate her shadow armor. Even with her comparatively vast mana reserves, significantly larger than even Rin's, she wouldn't have been able to keep it active much longer.

"If he comes back from that, what do we do?" worriedly asked Shizuka.

"We start running?" quipped Rin, walking closer.

"We try to confine it within multiples Light cubes and hop he won't use those laser eyes anymore." sighed Sakura, before smiling. "No, we're done, you're being transferred, Rin."

"Oh. Good." said Rin.

"You. How could you do this? Are you aliens?" asked the Osaka hunter who had worn the armor. Another man and three girls were also leaving cover to walk closer. They were apparently the only survivors of the Osaka Team.

"We are magicians." shrugged Sakura. "We have started teaching it to some members of our team, but it's a long process, and before you ask, with the main event coming in thirteen days, we won't have time to take you guys as disciples."

"What main event?" asked the man.

"The alien invasion. Man-eating giants are coming for our planet's resources. The black spheres are training us to fight it."

"Where did you learn that? Is your sphere more talkative than ours?"

"That's a secret. Anyway, good luck, and my condolences for your losses."

The man nodded, and Sakura's view changed to the inside of Gantz's apartment. She was being transferred.

Well, that was a crazy boss alright." shrugged Rin. "I don't see how the difficulty can increase further."

"Let's hope it doesn't, or we'll be in trouble." agreed Sakura. "But Judging from the quests the Gods gave us, there shouldn't be any more hunting mission."

"Yeah… Do you think Nurarihyon is still alive, trapped in your dimensional space?" asked Rin.

"I don't know. I wouldn't be able to bring him back even if I could. I think the dimension my shadows can open isn't a defined pocket like our spatial rings. It feels more like an infinite nothingness."

"I see. I wonder how many points we're getting from this night. Maybe we can get some of those mechas."

"I wouldn't want one. We're more effective fighting directly, Nee-san, and there are things to be said about being a smaller target." smiled Sakura.